Passengers (2016)

★★★½
Passengers is exciting not just because of the action but because it carefully examines the full effect of the unenviable dilemma of its characters. Like 2004’s Open Water or the 2010 Ryan Reynolds one-man show Buried, Passengers features a small cast stranded far from help and having only limited means to survive the predicament. These movies live and die by the strength of the actors, and by that I mean their ability to convey the psychological breakdown and hopelessness of their characters. Open Water was about two scuba divers stranded in the middle of the ocean. That premise all by itself is bound to cause anxiety. Now imagine that on a whole other level, like stranding two passengers on a spaceship that still has 90 years to go to its destination. It’s a fantastic idea.

The Avalon is a cruise ship on its way to the planet Homestead II, a journey that takes 120 years at half-light speed. The 5000 passengers and 258 crew members are asleep in hibernation pods. When the ship goes through an asteroid field, the defense systems come online and repel the rocks, save for one fragment that slips through and damages the hull. This causes a chain reaction that leads to a short circuit in the pod for mechanic Jim Preston (Chris Pratt). He wakes up groggy but eventually gets his bearings and explores the Avalon. The ship’s interactive voice system guides him around, but eventually he realizes that he’s the only one awake. He panics. He tries to fix his pod to go back to sleep, but his efforts are unsuccessful. He meets the android bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen), who is the only other “person” on the ship.

Days turn to months. He eventually accepts his fate and resigns to living alone with the ship’s services at his disposal. Through chance he discovers the sleeping Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) and is captivated by her. He discovers that she’s a writer and begins to read her work. After months of self-debate and second-guessing, he makes the decision to wake her. His loneliness has become unbearable. Upon awakening, Aurora goes through the same set of emotions as Jim. There’s confusion, then hope for a solution, then finally acceptance. Jim and Aurora become close, and they explore the ship’s offerings together. A spacewalk provides a breathtaking view of the stars. Fancy meals, thanks to Aurora’s gold class status, are now available. Only a small but crucial exchange of words with Arthur leads to the plan unraveling. Aurora discovers the truth.

This is the movie’s primary source of debate. There is no question that what he did was tantamount to murder. She was on life support, and he pulled the plug. The movie then introduces an interesting predicament: Over two years, the damage done by the asteroid has cascaded into multiple systems, resulting in a ship that is seriously compromised and will eventually destroy itself. If Jim hadn’t done what he did, he would not have the help he needed to repair the ship. Once the scope of the problem is revealed, we realize that it’s a two-person job. The movie is sidestepping the ethical implications of Jim’s decision by presenting a climax that can only be solved by two people, thereby justifying Jim’s decision to wake up Aurora and force her to live the rest of her life on this ship. Does that mean the movie is copping out, by negating our objection to his actions because she was key to saving the ship? Not exactly.

It's a game of mental gymnastics. It shouldn’t be easy. If Jim had remained alone and if the problem could be solved by one person, then the movie wouldn’t have been very interesting. All Jim had was Arthur with whom to converse. In the aforementioned Buried, Ryan Reynolds is trapped in a coffin buried somewhere in Iraq. He has a cell phone and communicates with his captor and a U.S. State Department official who is trying to find him. These conversations add drama to the movie, which takes place entirely inside the coffin. Jim needs a partner and forging an uneasy alliance with said partner creates tension in a way that featuring someone from another malfunctioning pod would not. One pod does malfunction. Ship’s deck chief Gus Mancuso (Laurence Fishburne) wakes up and provides crucial information to the leads, but his pod also caused numerous health problems that, combined, are fatal. He exits the movie quickly.

If the movie needs drama by introducing another character, even if that character enters the picture via methods deemed unethical, then I don’t view that as a weakness. There is another angle we can use to analyze Jim. It is empathy. Chief Mancuso touches on this. He examines the pods and knows what Jim did. Aurora is still angry with Jim, but the chief uses an analogy that puts the act into perspective. It’s not an excuse, and the movie doesn’t try to excuse Jim. The story uses isolation and its negative impact on mental health to cause a character to succumb to irrational thinking. Then the movie gives itself a way out. Once the crisis is averted, Jim discovers a way to reverse his decision. The ship is saved, so at this point there is no right answer. Aurora’s decision whether to accept Jim’s proposal is left entirely to her, or the writer’s whims if you wish. This does not settle the debate. What’s so good about this movie is that it can inspire discussion over Jim’s choice and how the story unfolds. Passengers is smart sci-fi, and it’s exciting too. I’ll take it.

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